CLLAM Seminar: Palle Leth

EVENEMANG

Datum:
04 oktober 2019 10:00
-
04 oktober 2019 12:00
Plats:D700

Slurs as Unauthorized Designations

A slur is a group designation which, besides referring to a certain group of people, has a derogatory capacity. For many theorists slurs encode, in addition to their referential meaning, an evaluative dimension by which they convey a negative conception of their referents or targets. This is supposed to account for their offensiveness. Theorists are concerned with correctly characterizing this additional content, whether it is to be understood as a part of their semantic meaning, a conventional implicature, a presupposition or an associated perspective. I will start by noting some problems with content based approaches, connected to the difficulties of specifying content and its ability to explain offensiveness. Then I will present an account of slurs according to which they are fundamentally designations which are unauthorized by their targets. The use of slurs serves to manifest disrespect rather than to express negative content. My account assigns a constitutional role to the activity and reactions of the targets in the creation of slurs. I will show how this approach offers a better explanation of the evolution, instability and offensiveness of slurs and how it avoids the problems of other ‘deflationary’ approaches.